Mike I never thought I would be siding with 90 vs you. The head coach gets all the credit because:
A: He is the visible head of any program.
B: Chooses which assistants get hired to do his recruiting and carry out his vision of what kind of program he runs.
C: Decides on the recruiting philosophy.
D: Which borderline kids to recruit.
E: Be the rock that the waves break against when things are bad.
F: Make the hard decisions to run a starter off the team.
G: The head coach almost always has to seal the deal with the recruit the assistants brought in.
H: Be the front man to get money for the program.
I: Motivate the team
Assistant Coach:
A: Know and teach his position.
B: Know and recruit his area.
C: Motivate the players.
Players:
A: Go to class
B: Go to practice and buy into what the coaches are asking 100%.
C: Do as much work in off season as possible to be ready to do A & B.
It is almost as though you are saying that because the head of ExxonMobil cannot be a roughneck, or a tool pusher he is less responsible for the companies 15 billion dollar profit than the labor guys.
This is why the head coach gets most of the money, and long term deals. Assistants are very important, and no good head coach wins with bad assistants or bad players, but he gets the credit because he makes the decisions that really matter in the long run.